Well, on the whole, this month's batch was not as rewarding as
last month's. So far it looks like the next batch will be a bit
better however.

As usual the urls (except for _Cosmos_) are Amazon affiliate links which
could potentially earn me a pittance should you buy something through one.

========

_Luck Stat Strategy (Secret of the Old Ones Book 1)_
by Blaise Corvin
https://amzn.to/3DeI66M

Here's the first of two LitRPGs for this month both of which I found
pretty average.

Trent Noguero plays a character called Vale dePardon in the totally
immersive online RPG "Secret of the Old Ones". The real world
setting for this book is a bit vague, but definitely somewhere in
the future where cybernetic implants make the RPG experience as
convincing as real-life (though people do log out more often than
you might think).

By following the strategy of always playing to max out his character's
"Luck" statistic [to be fair, he's a decent player anyway], Noguero
has stumbled onto one of the game's big secrets, something that has
bought him fame, will bring him riches if he manages it right and
may bring real death to his loved ones if he screws up.

To manage the situation, he will have to form a team, grow up a bit
and take control of his real life as well as his virtual one.

There's nothing wrong with this book, but there's nothing particularly
compelling about it either, and I won't be reading the follow-up.

I will note that unlike many of the LitRPGs Amazon pushes at me,
there is no sex and no harem elements in this one.

_Cosmos_
by various
https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmos_(serial_novel)

_Cosmos_ is a round-robin serial novel which ran from July of 1933
through January 1935 in the pages of the SF magazine "Science Fiction
Digest/Fantasy Magazine". I read it many years ago when Forest
Ackerman re-serialized it as a backup feature in his English-language
"Perry Rhodan" books. The general format was for one author to set
up a situation one month and for another to resolve it in the next
issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
parallel and had very little to do with each other.

The framework is that the young Alpha Centaurian Emperor, Dos Tev,
along with his science advisor Mea Quin, and his unfortunately named
bodyguard/soldier/spy (it varied a bit, I think) Bullo have escaped
from the usurper Ay-Artz who (for the hell of it, apparently) now
plans to invade our Solar System as well. Escaping in front of the
invasion in an experimental ship, the Centaurian trio must rally
the forces of the Solar System against the invasion, and Ay-Artz's
unexpected extra-dimensional ally "The Wrongness Of Space".

The chapters are as follows:
1 Faster Than Light by Roger Sherman Hoar as 'Ralph Milne Farley'
2 The Emigrants by David Henry Keller
3 Callisto's Children by Arthur J. Burks
4 The Murderer From Mars by Alfred Johannes Olsen as 'Bob Olsen'
5 Tyrants of Saturn by George Henry Weiss as 'Francis Flagg'
6 Interference on Luna by John W. Campbell
7 Son of the Trident by Raymond A. Palmer as 'Rae Winters'
8 Volunteers From Venus by Otis Adelbert Kline and E. Hoffman Price
9 Menace of the Automaton by Abner J. Gelula
10 Conference at Copernicus by Raymond A. Palmer
11 The Last Poet and the Robots by Abraham Grace Merritt
12 At the Crater's Core by J. Harvey Haggard
13 What a Course! by E. E. Smith
14 The Fate of the Neptunians by P. Schuyler Miller
15 The Horde of Elo Hava by L. A. Eshbach
16 Lost in Alien Dimensions by Eando Binder
17 Armageddon in Space by Edmond Hamilton

One odd tic I noticed in all of the chapters, so it must have been
some sort of progressive editorial policy of the magazine: "Although"
was always spelled "Altho".

The first chapter sets up the situation, and the next chapters up
through chapter 9 run in parallel and detail how Dos Tev's message
is received on each of the Solar System's many inhabited planets
and moons and how, and against what odds, those worlds' heroes set
off for the war conference Dos Tev has called on the Moon.

In the event, the actual conference is quite anti-climactic after
all that build-up, and the heroes leave again to join the battle,
(or deal with internal treachery) with varying degrees of success.

Along the way, the robot menace on Earth is introduced and dealt
with as an important side-issue, and the chapters introducing each
alien society deal with their various 30s inspired issues of socialism
and sexual politics. Interestingly, I don't think any of the alien
societies (or indeed Earth's by this point) could be described as
a democracy. (And the main hero, Dos Tev, is of course an hereditary
monarch).

My favorite chapter is probably Chapter 2 by David H. Keller, from
whom I don't believe I have read anything else. In any event, it
reads like an R. A. Lafferty story to me. Chapter 8 is unusual in
that it establishes the Venus of the serial as being Kline's _Planet
Of Peril_, with his Earth hero "Grandon of Terra" being namechecked
as holding down the fort there while the Venusian expedition sails
off to battle Ay-Artz.

Possibly the most unusual (as you might expect) chapter is A.
Merritt's Chapter 11 which effectively carves out a fantasy universe
underneath the embattled Earth. This is probably my second favorite
chapter and is notable for some matter-of-fact sexual and racial
equality.

Doc Smith's Chapter 13 is not a particularly notable outing from
this classic author, but is the only case (that I know of) where
he wrote about robots.

Finally after all the comings and goings, Chapter 17 sees space-opera
legend Edmond Hamilton bring the whole thing in for a landing in
typically apocalyptic style. His resolution of the whole Dos Tev
storyline is a bit surprising, but I suspect he felt that dealing
with the whole "What about Alpha Centauri" storyline would just
drag things out. I also think the whole "we'd rather be dead!" bit
is overplayed, but you can't fault the ending for decisiveness!

The whole thing is a bit loosey-goosey as far as planning and
cohesion go but if you like pre-Golden Age SF, with all that entails,
you will probably like (at least parts of) this. I read it a chapter
at a time, in between other books, and I was entertained.

Dungeon Goddess
by Gideon Caldwell
https://amzn.to/3d5XasT

Jake Goodman is a man leading a double life. While he is awake,
he works as a blue-collar art installation hand at a large museum
in New York (though not quite *our* New York), but when he is asleep
in New York, he awakes in the somewhat RPG fantasy world of "The
Orange Vale".

The Orange Vale has big problems due in part to the vanishment of
the gods there -- In particular the Dungeon Goddess. When things
are doing well, the Dungeon Goddess choses local maidens to hold
dungeon cores and keep them in check. Without the goddess, the
cores have overpowered the Dungeon Maidens forcing them to grow
dangerous dungeons all over the Vale, with the only solution being
(unless the Goddess can be returned) to defeat the Maidens and claim
her core (which is a major level-up event). The problem is that
is not at all easy, and bad actors are on the move to do so.

After deciding that Orange Vale is real, or real enough for *him*
at any rate, Jake decides to undertake that quest as well.

The big problems for Jake are sleep related. In New York, he has
insomnia, and can rarely get to sleep to return to the Vale. In
the Vale, he has narcolepsy, and is liable to nod-off in the midst
of battle, returning to New York.

As he moves back and forth, elements of the worlds start to intersect
with each other -- the new installation he is putting up seems to
portray the Goddess herself, and it is evident something is
manipulating events in both settings...

I have to say I was not really a fan of this one. There were some
elements that were just too ridiculous for even the hearty suspension
of disbelief I normally bring to this sort of story. In particular
Jake decides to start clearing dungeons with no preparation or
equipment, and decides that even though all his opponents have edged
weapons, he will continue to fight with an unarmed MMA style.
Furthermore, the idea that he may fall asleep in the middle of a
battle and survive is completely implausible, at least in the
beginning (after he wins a core the idea is introduced that he can
retreat to a conquered Maiden's realm in that case, but the credibility
damage is done by that point). I thought the dual-life aspect
tended to slow things down as well. It was pretty clear that Orange
Vale was the 'A' story, and moving back to the 'B' setting and
Jake's New York problems just slowed things down. There is also
one pretty obvious step Jake could take in New York that he does
not.

There's some sex in this one, but it's not yet a harem setting.
Jake has one girl in each realm that he's trying to be faithful
too, but it's pretty clear that things will be moving in that
direction if the series continues.

Ted Nolan wrote:

<snip>

> _Cosmos_
> by various
> https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmos_(serial_novel)
>
> _Cosmos_ is a round-robin serial novel which ran from July of 1933
> through January 1935 in the pages of the SF magazine "Science Fiction
> Digest/Fantasy Magazine". I read it many years ago when Forest
> Ackerman re-serialized it as a backup feature in his English-language
> "Perry Rhodan" books. The general format was for one author to set
> up a situation one month and for another to resolve it in the next
> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>
> The framework is that the young Alpha Centaurian Emperor, Dos Tev,
> along with his science advisor Mea Quin, and his unfortunately named
> bodyguard/soldier/spy (it varied a bit, I think) Bullo have escaped
> from the usurper Ay-Artz who (for the hell of it, apparently) now
> plans to invade our Solar System as well. Escaping in front of the
> invasion in an experimental ship, the Centaurian trio must rally
> the forces of the Solar System against the invasion, and Ay-Artz's
> unexpected extra-dimensional ally "The Wrongness Of Space".
>
> The chapters are as follows:
>
> 1 Faster Than Light by Roger Sherman Hoar as 'Ralph Milne Farley'
> 2 The Emigrants by David Henry Keller
> 3 Callisto's Children by Arthur J. Burks
> 4 The Murderer From Mars by Alfred Johannes Olsen as 'Bob Olsen'
> 5 Tyrants of Saturn by George Henry Weiss as 'Francis Flagg'
> 6 Interference on Luna by John W. Campbell
> 7 Son of the Trident by Raymond A. Palmer as 'Rae Winters'
> 8 Volunteers From Venus by Otis Adelbert Kline and E. Hoffman Price
> 9 Menace of the Automaton by Abner J. Gelula
> 10 Conference at Copernicus by Raymond A. Palmer
> 11 The Last Poet and the Robots by Abraham Grace Merritt
> 12 At the Crater's Core by J. Harvey Haggard
> 13 What a Course! by E. E. Smith
> 14 The Fate of the Neptunians by P. Schuyler Miller
> 15 The Horde of Elo Hava by L. A. Eshbach
> 16 Lost in Alien Dimensions by Eando Binder
> 17 Armageddon in Space by Edmond Hamilton
>
> One odd tic I noticed in all of the chapters, so it must have been
> some sort of progressive editorial policy of the magazine: "Although"
> was always spelled "Altho".

The tic seems familiar. Although it's hard for me to put my finger on it
at present.

There's a website devoted to Cosmos: <https://cosmos-serial.com>. One
page, <https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-in-perry-rhodan/>, covers the
Perry Rhodan - Ackerman Ace angle.
The word "although" appears a total of five times in "Faster Than
Light." It is correctly spelled as "although" in both the online Cosmos:
<https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-the-serial/chapter-1-faster-than-light-by-ralph-milne-farley/>
and its installment in Ace "#32 Challenge of the Unknown."
Thank Tor! <- WTF? LOL.
As an aside Ahasuerus, a pertinent Ace PR #32 citation for "Faster Than
Light" is missing from isfdb:
<https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1291758>

BTW Ted, beings the SFCD tagged Voltz for "the worst novel of the year"
https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/de-en.en.cf27e1a8-631d521d-718c3867-74722d776562/https/www.perrypedia.de/wiki/William_Voltz
it lowered my expectations for his PR stories. But Voltz pleasantly
surprised me. He's obviously not for everyone, and his style's distinct,
but, in the end, Voltz's PR stories work for me. "To each his own" as
they say.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

Ted Nolan wrote:

<snip>

> _Cosmos_
> by various
> https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmos_(serial_novel)
>
> _Cosmos_ is a round-robin serial novel which ran from July of 1933
> through January 1935 in the pages of the SF magazine "Science Fiction
> Digest/Fantasy Magazine". I read it many years ago when Forest
> Ackerman re-serialized it as a backup feature in his English-language
> "Perry Rhodan" books. The general format was for one author to set
> up a situation one month and for another to resolve it in the next
> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>
> The framework is that the young Alpha Centaurian Emperor, Dos Tev,
> along with his science advisor Mea Quin, and his unfortunately named
> bodyguard/soldier/spy (it varied a bit, I think) Bullo have escaped
> from the usurper Ay-Artz who (for the hell of it, apparently) now
> plans to invade our Solar System as well. Escaping in front of the
> invasion in an experimental ship, the Centaurian trio must rally
> the forces of the Solar System against the invasion, and Ay-Artz's
> unexpected extra-dimensional ally "The Wrongness Of Space".
>
> The chapters are as follows:
>
> 1 Faster Than Light by Roger Sherman Hoar as 'Ralph Milne Farley'
> 2 The Emigrants by David Henry Keller
> 3 Callisto's Children by Arthur J. Burks
> 4 The Murderer From Mars by Alfred Johannes Olsen as 'Bob Olsen'
> 5 Tyrants of Saturn by George Henry Weiss as 'Francis Flagg'
> 6 Interference on Luna by John W. Campbell
> 7 Son of the Trident by Raymond A. Palmer as 'Rae Winters'
> 8 Volunteers From Venus by Otis Adelbert Kline and E. Hoffman Price
> 9 Menace of the Automaton by Abner J. Gelula
> 10 Conference at Copernicus by Raymond A. Palmer
> 11 The Last Poet and the Robots by Abraham Grace Merritt
> 12 At the Crater's Core by J. Harvey Haggard
> 13 What a Course! by E. E. Smith
> 14 The Fate of the Neptunians by P. Schuyler Miller
> 15 The Horde of Elo Hava by L. A. Eshbach
> 16 Lost in Alien Dimensions by Eando Binder
> 17 Armageddon in Space by Edmond Hamilton
>
> One odd tic I noticed in all of the chapters, so it must have been
> some sort of progressive editorial policy of the magazine: "Although"
> was always spelled "Altho".

The tic seems familiar. Although it's hard for me to put my finger on it
at present.

There's a website devoted to Cosmos: <https://cosmos-serial.com>. One
page, <https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-in-perry-rhodan/>, covers the
Perry Rhodan - Ackerman Ace angle.
The word "although" appears a total of five times in "Faster Than
Light." It is correctly spelled as "although" in both the online Cosmos:
<https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-the-serial/chapter-1-faster-than-light-by-ralph-milne-farley/>
and its installment in Ace "#32 Challenge of the Unknown."
Thank Tor! <- WTF? LOL.
As an aside Ahasuerus, a pertinent Ace PR #32 citation for "Faster Than
Light" is missing from isfdb:
<https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1291758>

BTW Ted, beings the SFCD tagged Voltz for "the worst novel of the year"
https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/de-en.en.cf27e1a8-631d521d-718c3867-74722d776562/https/www.perrypedia.de/wiki/William_Voltz
it lowered my expectations for his PR stories. But Voltz pleasantly
surprised me. He's obviously not for everyone, and his style's distinct,
but, in the end, Voltz's PR stories work for me. "To each his own" as
they say.

One more thing ...

Moewig Nr. 104 "Nur ein Greenhorn" AKA Ace #96 "Horn: Green" by Voltz:
<https://www.perrypedia.de/mediawiki/images/1/1b/PR0104.jpg> was
recently read by me. The cover depicts newlyweds John and Cora Pincer on
the Springer planet Alazee. Cora's caught in a birdman trap. The birdmen
are shown on the left side.
The Springers and Aras again ally with each other to try to take
down the Solar Imperium. This time they smuggle Earthly opium poppy
products throughout the galaxy in order to: make a profit, make virtual
slaves out of alien races, and project their own wicked behavior on the
Solar Imperium in order to implicate it as the guilty party.
A newfound nicotine addiction, courtesy of Cora's cigarettes,
coerces the birdmen to help the newlyweds. Such is Voltz's Welt.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

In article <20220910a@crcomp.net>, Don <g@crcomp.net> wrote:
>Ted Nolan wrote:
>
><snip>
>
>> _Cosmos_
>> by various
>> https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmos_(serial_novel)
>>
>> _Cosmos_ is a round-robin serial novel which ran from July of 1933
>> through January 1935 in the pages of the SF magazine "Science Fiction
>> Digest/Fantasy Magazine". I read it many years ago when Forest
>> Ackerman re-serialized it as a backup feature in his English-language
>> "Perry Rhodan" books. The general format was for one author to set
>> up a situation one month and for another to resolve it in the next
>> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
>> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
>> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>>
>> The framework is that the young Alpha Centaurian Emperor, Dos Tev,
>> along with his science advisor Mea Quin, and his unfortunately named
>> bodyguard/soldier/spy (it varied a bit, I think) Bullo have escaped
>> from the usurper Ay-Artz who (for the hell of it, apparently) now
>> plans to invade our Solar System as well. Escaping in front of the
>> invasion in an experimental ship, the Centaurian trio must rally
>> the forces of the Solar System against the invasion, and Ay-Artz's
>> unexpected extra-dimensional ally "The Wrongness Of Space".
>>
>> The chapters are as follows:
>>
>> 1 Faster Than Light by Roger Sherman Hoar as 'Ralph Milne Farley'
>> 2 The Emigrants by David Henry Keller
>> 3 Callisto's Children by Arthur J. Burks
>> 4 The Murderer From Mars by Alfred Johannes Olsen as 'Bob Olsen'
>> 5 Tyrants of Saturn by George Henry Weiss as 'Francis Flagg'
>> 6 Interference on Luna by John W. Campbell
>> 7 Son of the Trident by Raymond A. Palmer as 'Rae Winters'
>> 8 Volunteers From Venus by Otis Adelbert Kline and E. Hoffman Price
>> 9 Menace of the Automaton by Abner J. Gelula
>> 10 Conference at Copernicus by Raymond A. Palmer
>> 11 The Last Poet and the Robots by Abraham Grace Merritt
>> 12 At the Crater's Core by J. Harvey Haggard
>> 13 What a Course! by E. E. Smith
>> 14 The Fate of the Neptunians by P. Schuyler Miller
>> 15 The Horde of Elo Hava by L. A. Eshbach
>> 16 Lost in Alien Dimensions by Eando Binder
>> 17 Armageddon in Space by Edmond Hamilton
>>
>> One odd tic I noticed in all of the chapters, so it must have been
>> some sort of progressive editorial policy of the magazine: "Although"
>> was always spelled "Altho".
>
>The tic seems familiar. Although it's hard for me to put my finger on it
>at present.
>
>There's a website devoted to Cosmos: <https://cosmos-serial.com>. One
>page, <https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-in-perry-rhodan/>, covers the
>Perry Rhodan - Ackerman Ace angle.
> The word "although" appears a total of five times in "Faster Than
>Light." It is correctly spelled as "although" in both the online Cosmos:
><https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-the-serial/chapter-1-faster-than-light-by-ralph-milne-farley/>
>and its installment in Ace "#32 Challenge of the Unknown."
> Thank Tor! <- WTF? LOL.
>
>As an aside Ahasuerus, a pertinent Ace PR #32 citation for "Faster Than
>Light" is missing from isfdb:
><https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1291758>
>
>BTW Ted, beings the SFCD tagged Voltz for "the worst novel of the year"
>https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/de-en.en.cf27e1a8-631d521d-718c3867-74722d776562/https/www.perrypedia.de/wiki/William_Voltz
>it lowered my expectations for his PR stories. But Voltz pleasantly
>surprised me. He's obviously not for everyone, and his style's distinct,
>but, in the end, Voltz's PR stories work for me. "To each his own" as
>they say.
>
>Danke,
>

Well, you are right.

Going back to the text file I converted the web HTML into and doing
some greps and uniqs, I see: 5 'altho' & 11 'although'. I guess the
unusual varient just caught my eye, and seeing it more than once I
assumed it was ubiquitous. My bad!

Interesting information at https://cosmos-serial.com. I had not realized
that more authors than Kline used their established characters in the
serial.

As to Voltz, my memory is that I came to associate him with the "weird"
issues of PR that I generally did not like such as the issue with Khrest's
death where he was persued by elephant-men who had to stop the action
every few paragraphs to clean their trunks out with leaves, or the issue
where everybody on the planet got fat from breathing the air.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

On Sunday, September 11, 2022 at 12:16:51 AM UTC-4, Don wrote:
[snip-snip]
> As an aside Ahasuerus, a pertinent Ace PR #32 citation for "Faster Than
> Light" is missing from isfdb:
> <https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1291758> [snip]

Our _Perry Rhodan #32: Challenge of the Unknown_ record
(https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?268132) includes
"Cosmos: Chapter 1: Faster Than Light (Part 1 of 29)" (p.135).

Note that we list the original serialization, which appeared in
_Science Fiction Digest_ in 1933-1934, and the Ackerman
serialization, which appeared in _Perry Rhodan_ in 1973-1974,
separately -- see https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?912927
for details. The original serialization had 18 parts while the
Ackerman version had 29 parts, presumably because of space
limitations.

Ted Nolan wrote:
> Don wrote:
>>Ted Nolan wrote:
>>
>><snip>
>>
>>> _Cosmos_
>>> by various
>>> https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmos_(serial_novel)
>>>
>>> _Cosmos_ is a round-robin serial novel which ran from July of 1933
>>> through January 1935 in the pages of the SF magazine "Science Fiction
>>> Digest/Fantasy Magazine". I read it many years ago when Forest
>>> Ackerman re-serialized it as a backup feature in his English-language
>>> "Perry Rhodan" books. The general format was for one author to set
>>> up a situation one month and for another to resolve it in the next
>>> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
>>> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>>> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
>>> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>>>
>>> The framework is that the young Alpha Centaurian Emperor, Dos Tev,
>>> along with his science advisor Mea Quin, and his unfortunately named
>>> bodyguard/soldier/spy (it varied a bit, I think) Bullo have escaped
>>> from the usurper Ay-Artz who (for the hell of it, apparently) now
>>> plans to invade our Solar System as well. Escaping in front of the
>>> invasion in an experimental ship, the Centaurian trio must rally
>>> the forces of the Solar System against the invasion, and Ay-Artz's
>>> unexpected extra-dimensional ally "The Wrongness Of Space".
>>>
>>> The chapters are as follows:
>>>
>>> 1 Faster Than Light by Roger Sherman Hoar as 'Ralph Milne Farley'
>>> 2 The Emigrants by David Henry Keller
>>> 3 Callisto's Children by Arthur J. Burks
>>> 4 The Murderer From Mars by Alfred Johannes Olsen as 'Bob Olsen'
>>> 5 Tyrants of Saturn by George Henry Weiss as 'Francis Flagg'
>>> 6 Interference on Luna by John W. Campbell
>>> 7 Son of the Trident by Raymond A. Palmer as 'Rae Winters'
>>> 8 Volunteers From Venus by Otis Adelbert Kline and E. Hoffman Price
>>> 9 Menace of the Automaton by Abner J. Gelula
>>> 10 Conference at Copernicus by Raymond A. Palmer
>>> 11 The Last Poet and the Robots by Abraham Grace Merritt
>>> 12 At the Crater's Core by J. Harvey Haggard
>>> 13 What a Course! by E. E. Smith
>>> 14 The Fate of the Neptunians by P. Schuyler Miller
>>> 15 The Horde of Elo Hava by L. A. Eshbach
>>> 16 Lost in Alien Dimensions by Eando Binder
>>> 17 Armageddon in Space by Edmond Hamilton
>>>
>>> One odd tic I noticed in all of the chapters, so it must have been
>>> some sort of progressive editorial policy of the magazine: "Although"
>>> was always spelled "Altho".
>>
>>The tic seems familiar. Although it's hard for me to put my finger on it
>>at present.
>>
>>There's a website devoted to Cosmos: <https://cosmos-serial.com>. One
>>page, <https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-in-perry-rhodan/>, covers the
>>Perry Rhodan - Ackerman Ace angle.
>> The word "although" appears a total of five times in "Faster Than
>>Light." It is correctly spelled as "although" in both the online Cosmos:
>><https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-the-serial/chapter-1-faster-than-light-by-ralph-milne-farley/>
>>and its installment in Ace "#32 Challenge of the Unknown."
>> Thank Tor! <- WTF? LOL.
>>
>>As an aside Ahasuerus, a pertinent Ace PR #32 citation for "Faster Than
>>Light" is missing from isfdb:
>><https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1291758>
>>
>>BTW Ted, beings the SFCD tagged Voltz for "the worst novel of the year"
>><https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/de-en.en.cf27e1a8-631d521d-718c3867-74722d776562/https/www.perrypedia.de/wiki/William_Voltz>
>>it lowered my expectations for his PR stories. But Voltz pleasantly
>>surprised me. He's obviously not for everyone, and his style's distinct,
>>but, in the end, Voltz's PR stories work for me. "To each his own" as
>>they say.
>>
>>Danke,
>>
>
> Well, you are right.
>
> Going back to the text file I converted the web HTML into and doing
> some greps and uniqs, I see: 5 'altho' & 11 'although'. I guess the
> unusual varient just caught my eye, and seeing it more than once I
> assumed it was ubiquitous. My bad!
>
> Interesting information at https://cosmos-serial.com. I had not realized
> that more authors than Kline used their established characters in the
> serial.
>
> As to Voltz, my memory is that I came to associate him with the "weird"
> issues of PR that I generally did not like such as the issue with Khrest's
> death where he was persued by elephant-men who had to stop the action
> every few paragraphs to clean their trunks out with leaves, or the issue
> where everybody on the planet got fat from breathing the air.

The plot thickens...

My current read is "#99 The Blue System" by Scheer. Unless Darlton pulls
another mousebeaver out of his hat, Scheer's probably destined to become
my favorite author, because this Scheer story promises everything: Akon,
Arkon, Atlan, Auris, and Rhodan (who doesn't necessarily appear in all
stories, as Rhofen already know).
"Although" appears correctly spelled in the third paragraph of the
first chapter of the "Blue System" MMPB. Then it appears a total of
twelve more times, as "altho." A spot check also reveals "though"
predominately spelled as "tho."
On the other hand, all occurrences of both words are correctly
spelled in the eBook. It leads me to conclude some sort of weird typeset
error probably occurred.

###

BTW Lynn, the 1976 sticker price on #99 "Blue System" is $1.25 - a 66%
increase over 1969's $0.75 price for #1. Does gooberment include MMPB
price increases in its storied, self-serving, so-called, "core CPI?"

###

The guest editorial in #99 talks about the first Perry Rhodan
convention. Below are some pertinent excerpts. One of them confirms my
suspicions about Darlton's role as authorial "wise guy."

Forry Ackermann was indefatigable. (He was also even
horribly punnier in person than on paper.) Clark Darlton
(Walter Ernsting) was an overgrown Pucky. ... Kurt Mahr
was anything but curt; he was cordial, kind & considerate.
William Voltz was so devastatingly handsome that, as
Forry said, he immediately made one think of the alien
race of Cucumber People - the Microtechnicians - because
"every time a female Rhofan sees Willi, she /Swoons/-!" ...

Then there were other authors present: Ben Bova, ...

There was, as Forry introduced him, "living legend
A. E. VAN VOGT, ..."

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

In article <20220913a@crcomp.net>, Don <g@crcomp.net> wrote:
>
>The guest editorial in #99 talks about the first Perry Rhodan
>convention. Below are some pertinent excerpts. One of them confirms my
>suspicions about Darlton's role as authorial "wise guy."
>
> Forry Ackermann was indefatigable. (He was also even
> horribly punnier in person than on paper.) Clark Darlton
> (Walter Ernsting) was an overgrown Pucky. ... Kurt Mahr
> was anything but curt; he was cordial, kind & considerate.
> William Voltz was so devastatingly handsome that, as
> Forry said, he immediately made one think of the alien
> race of Cucumber People - the Microtechnicians - because
> "every time a female Rhofan sees Willi, she /Swoons/-!" ...
>
> Then there were other authors present: Ben Bova, ...
>
> There was, as Forry introduced him, "living legend
> A. E. VAN VOGT, ..."
>

Those were the days. I believe everybody on that list is gone now.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

On 9/13/2022 12:23 PM, Don wrote:
> Ted Nolan wrote:
>> Don wrote:
>>> Ted Nolan wrote:
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>>> _Cosmos_
>>>> by various
>>>> https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmos_(serial_novel)
>>>>
>>>> _Cosmos_ is a round-robin serial novel which ran from July of 1933
>>>> through January 1935 in the pages of the SF magazine "Science Fiction
>>>> Digest/Fantasy Magazine". I read it many years ago when Forest
>>>> Ackerman re-serialized it as a backup feature in his English-language
>>>> "Perry Rhodan" books. The general format was for one author to set
>>>> up a situation one month and for another to resolve it in the next
>>>> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
>>>> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>>>> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
>>>> parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>>>>
>>>> The framework is that the young Alpha Centaurian Emperor, Dos Tev,
>>>> along with his science advisor Mea Quin, and his unfortunately named
>>>> bodyguard/soldier/spy (it varied a bit, I think) Bullo have escaped
>>>> from the usurper Ay-Artz who (for the hell of it, apparently) now
>>>> plans to invade our Solar System as well. Escaping in front of the
>>>> invasion in an experimental ship, the Centaurian trio must rally
>>>> the forces of the Solar System against the invasion, and Ay-Artz's
>>>> unexpected extra-dimensional ally "The Wrongness Of Space".
>>>>
>>>> The chapters are as follows:
>>>>
>>>> 1 Faster Than Light by Roger Sherman Hoar as 'Ralph Milne Farley'
>>>> 2 The Emigrants by David Henry Keller
>>>> 3 Callisto's Children by Arthur J. Burks
>>>> 4 The Murderer From Mars by Alfred Johannes Olsen as 'Bob Olsen'
>>>> 5 Tyrants of Saturn by George Henry Weiss as 'Francis Flagg'
>>>> 6 Interference on Luna by John W. Campbell
>>>> 7 Son of the Trident by Raymond A. Palmer as 'Rae Winters'
>>>> 8 Volunteers From Venus by Otis Adelbert Kline and E. Hoffman Price
>>>> 9 Menace of the Automaton by Abner J. Gelula
>>>> 10 Conference at Copernicus by Raymond A. Palmer
>>>> 11 The Last Poet and the Robots by Abraham Grace Merritt
>>>> 12 At the Crater's Core by J. Harvey Haggard
>>>> 13 What a Course! by E. E. Smith
>>>> 14 The Fate of the Neptunians by P. Schuyler Miller
>>>> 15 The Horde of Elo Hava by L. A. Eshbach
>>>> 16 Lost in Alien Dimensions by Eando Binder
>>>> 17 Armageddon in Space by Edmond Hamilton
>>>>
>>>> One odd tic I noticed in all of the chapters, so it must have been
>>>> some sort of progressive editorial policy of the magazine: "Although"
>>>> was always spelled "Altho".
>>>
>>> The tic seems familiar. Although it's hard for me to put my finger on it
>>> at present.
>>>
>>> There's a website devoted to Cosmos: <https://cosmos-serial.com>. One
>>> page, <https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-in-perry-rhodan/>, covers the
>>> Perry Rhodan - Ackerman Ace angle.
>>> The word "although" appears a total of five times in "Faster Than
>>> Light." It is correctly spelled as "although" in both the online Cosmos:
>>> <https://cosmos-serial.com/cosmos-the-serial/chapter-1-faster-than-light-by-ralph-milne-farley/>
>>> and its installment in Ace "#32 Challenge of the Unknown."
>>> Thank Tor! <- WTF? LOL.
>>>
>>> As an aside Ahasuerus, a pertinent Ace PR #32 citation for "Faster Than
>>> Light" is missing from isfdb:
>>> <https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1291758>
>>>
>>> BTW Ted, beings the SFCD tagged Voltz for "the worst novel of the year"
>>> <https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/de-en.en.cf27e1a8-631d521d-718c3867-74722d776562/https/www.perrypedia.de/wiki/William_Voltz>
>>> it lowered my expectations for his PR stories. But Voltz pleasantly
>>> surprised me. He's obviously not for everyone, and his style's distinct,
>>> but, in the end, Voltz's PR stories work for me. "To each his own" as
>>> they say.
>>>
>>> Danke,
>>>
>>
>> Well, you are right.
>>
>> Going back to the text file I converted the web HTML into and doing
>> some greps and uniqs, I see: 5 'altho' & 11 'although'. I guess the
>> unusual varient just caught my eye, and seeing it more than once I
>> assumed it was ubiquitous. My bad!
>>
>> Interesting information at https://cosmos-serial.com. I had not realized
>> that more authors than Kline used their established characters in the
>> serial.
>>
>> As to Voltz, my memory is that I came to associate him with the "weird"
>> issues of PR that I generally did not like such as the issue with Khrest's
>> death where he was persued by elephant-men who had to stop the action
>> every few paragraphs to clean their trunks out with leaves, or the issue
>> where everybody on the planet got fat from breathing the air.
>
> The plot thickens...
>
> My current read is "#99 The Blue System" by Scheer. Unless Darlton pulls
> another mousebeaver out of his hat, Scheer's probably destined to become
> my favorite author, because this Scheer story promises everything: Akon,
> Arkon, Atlan, Auris, and Rhodan (who doesn't necessarily appear in all
> stories, as Rhofen already know).
> "Although" appears correctly spelled in the third paragraph of the
> first chapter of the "Blue System" MMPB. Then it appears a total of
> twelve more times, as "altho." A spot check also reveals "though"
> predominately spelled as "tho."
> On the other hand, all occurrences of both words are correctly
> spelled in the eBook. It leads me to conclude some sort of weird typeset
> error probably occurred.
>
> ###
>
> BTW Lynn, the 1976 sticker price on #99 "Blue System" is $1.25 - a 66%
> increase over 1969's $0.75 price for #1. Does gooberment include MMPB
> price increases in its storied, self-serving, so-called, "core CPI?"
>
> ###
>
> The guest editorial in #99 talks about the first Perry Rhodan
> convention. Below are some pertinent excerpts. One of them confirms my
> suspicions about Darlton's role as authorial "wise guy."
>
> Forry Ackermann was indefatigable. (He was also even
> horribly punnier in person than on paper.) Clark Darlton
> (Walter Ernsting) was an overgrown Pucky. ... Kurt Mahr
> was anything but curt; he was cordial, kind & considerate.
> William Voltz was so devastatingly handsome that, as
> Forry said, he immediately made one think of the alien
> race of Cucumber People - the Microtechnicians - because
> "every time a female Rhofan sees Willi, she /Swoons/-!" ...
>
> Then there were other authors present: Ben Bova, ...
>
> There was, as Forry introduced him, "living legend
> A. E. VAN VOGT, ..."
>
> Danke,

I think that the core CPI covers gasoline, heating oil, bread, milk,
rent, and a few other items. Not many.

MMPB books are a luxury, not a fundamental cost to live.

I remember the 1970s very well. The cost of everything was jumping
every time you turned around. Something like 300% inflation in the
1970s alone.

Lynn

On 9/13/2022 12:44 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> In article <20220913a@crcomp.net>, Don <g@crcomp.net> wrote:
>>
>> The guest editorial in #99 talks about the first Perry Rhodan
>> convention. Below are some pertinent excerpts. One of them confirms my
>> suspicions about Darlton's role as authorial "wise guy."
>>
>> Forry Ackermann was indefatigable. (He was also even
>> horribly punnier in person than on paper.) Clark Darlton
>> (Walter Ernsting) was an overgrown Pucky. ... Kurt Mahr
>> was anything but curt; he was cordial, kind & considerate.
>> William Voltz was so devastatingly handsome that, as
>> Forry said, he immediately made one think of the alien
>> race of Cucumber People - the Microtechnicians - because
>> "every time a female Rhofan sees Willi, she /Swoons/-!" ...
>>
>> Then there were other authors present: Ben Bova, ...
>>
>> There was, as Forry introduced him, "living legend
>> A. E. VAN VOGT, ..."
>>
>
> Those were the days. I believe everybody on that list is gone now.

Yup, Ben Bova recently passed away in 2020 of the Koof. I have about 30
(SWAG) of his books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bova

Lynn

On Sunday, 11 September 2022 at 04:22:39 UTC+1, Don wrote:
> Ted Nolan wrote:
>
> <snip>
> > _Cosmos_
> > by various
> > https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmos_(serial_novel)
> >
> > _Cosmos_ is a round-robin serial novel which ran from July of 1933
> > through January 1935 in the pages of the SF magazine "Science Fiction
> > Digest/Fantasy Magazine". I read it many years ago when Forest
> > Ackerman re-serialized it as a backup feature in his English-language
> > "Perry Rhodan" books. The general format was for one author to set
> > up a situation one month and for another to resolve it in the next
> > issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
> > parallel and had very little to do with each other.
> > issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
> > parallel and had very little to do with each other.
> > [...]
> > One odd tic I noticed in all of the chapters, so it must have been
> > some sort of progressive editorial policy of the magazine: "Although"
> > was always spelled "Altho".
>
> The tic seems familiar. Although it's hard for me to put my finger on it
> at present.

I would suspect another attempt at language reform by
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_J_Ackerman>
when he wasn't boosting Esperanto. But if I'm following
the trail here, he may have picked it up /from/ _Cosmos_.

Shorter words are handy for typing, too.

I think I remember that he used "scientifiction",
but I gather that Hugo Gernsback invented that one.
But didn't the Perry Rhodan books in English use
percent "SPEOL" - speed of light - to refer to velocity?
I'm slightly curious what that was in German.
Probably invented by Albert Einstein. Of course
he shortened it to "c".

Robert Carnegie wrote:
> Don wrote:
>> Ted Nolan wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>> > _Cosmos_
>> > by various
>> > https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmos_(serial_novel)
>> >
>> > _Cosmos_ is a round-robin serial novel which ran from July of 1933
>> > through January 1935 in the pages of the SF magazine "Science Fiction
>> > Digest/Fantasy Magazine". I read it many years ago when Forest
>> > Ackerman re-serialized it as a backup feature in his English-language
>> > "Perry Rhodan" books. The general format was for one author to set
>> > up a situation one month and for another to resolve it in the next
>> > issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
>> > parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>> > issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
>> > parallel and had very little to do with each other.
>> > [...]
>> > One odd tic I noticed in all of the chapters, so it must have been
>> > some sort of progressive editorial policy of the magazine: "Although"
>> > was always spelled "Altho".
>>
>> The tic seems familiar. Although it's hard for me to put my finger on it
>> at present.
>
> I would suspect another attempt at language reform by
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_J_Ackerman>
> when he wasn't boosting Esperanto. But if I'm following
> the trail here, he may have picked it up /from/ _Cosmos_.
>
> Shorter words are handy for typing, too.
>
> I think I remember that he used "scientifiction",
> but I gather that Hugo Gernsback invented that one.
> But didn't the Perry Rhodan books in English use
> percent "SPEOL" - speed of light - to refer to velocity?
> I'm slightly curious what that was in German.
> Probably invented by Albert Einstein. Of course
> he shortened it to "c".

A limited spot check shows "altho," "although," and "tho" all appear in
a MMPB. While the associated eBook exclusively uses "although" and
"though." This leads me to believe a typeset error occurred.
Yet both "altho" and "tho" look like they belong in Ackerman's argot.
SPEOL definitely is an Ackerman acronym. Lichtgeschwindigkeit, or speed
of light spelled out and not abbreviated, appears in the affiliated
Moewig:

"#87 The Starless Realm"

"If the stars show visible motion, we must be going many
times speol," Sengu surmised reflectively. "Do you think
there'll be side effects? Like a time displacement? Infinite
mass...?"

"Nr. 95 - Himmel ohne Sterne"

"Wenn die Sterne sich bewegen, muss es vielfache
Lichtgeschwindigkeit sein", vermutete Sengu nachdenklich.
"Ob Effekte auftreten? Zeitverschiebung? Unendliche Masse ...?"

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

On 9/10/2022 2:03 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> Well, on the whole, this month's batch was not as rewarding as
> last month's. So far it looks like the next batch will be a bit
> better however.
>
> As usual the urls (except for _Cosmos_) are Amazon affiliate links which
> could potentially earn me a pittance should you buy something through one.
>
> ========
>
> _Luck Stat Strategy (Secret of the Old Ones Book 1)_
> by Blaise Corvin
> https://amzn.to/3DeI66M
>
> Here's the first of two LitRPGs for this month both of which I found
> pretty average.
>
> Trent Noguero plays a character called Vale dePardon in the totally
> immersive online RPG "Secret of the Old Ones". The real world
> setting for this book is a bit vague, but definitely somewhere in
> the future where cybernetic implants make the RPG experience as
> convincing as real-life (though people do log out more often than
> you might think).
>
> By following the strategy of always playing to max out his character's
> "Luck" statistic [to be fair, he's a decent player anyway], Noguero
> has stumbled onto one of the game's big secrets, something that has
> bought him fame, will bring him riches if he manages it right and
> may bring real death to his loved ones if he screws up.
>
> To manage the situation, he will have to form a team, grow up a bit
> and take control of his real life as well as his virtual one.
>
> There's nothing wrong with this book, but there's nothing particularly
> compelling about it either, and I won't be reading the follow-up.
>
> I will note that unlike many of the LitRPGs Amazon pushes at me,
> there is no sex and no harem elements in this one.
>
> _Cosmos_
> by various
> https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmos_(serial_novel)
>
> _Cosmos_ is a round-robin serial novel which ran from July of 1933
> through January 1935 in the pages of the SF magazine "Science Fiction
> Digest/Fantasy Magazine". I read it many years ago when Forest
> Ackerman re-serialized it as a backup feature in his English-language
> "Perry Rhodan" books. The general format was for one author to set
> up a situation one month and for another to resolve it in the next
> issue, though in fact many of the chapters effectively ran in
> parallel and had very little to do with each other.

I passed on the Cosmos serial when I reread the Perry Rhodans 38 ??? to
52 ??? recently.

Lynn